Identity and the Economics of Organizations

Akerlof, George A.; Kranton, Rachel

doi:10.1257/0895330053147930

Cited by 1,281 publications

(812 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…First, a large body of evidence has accumulated on government failure due, for example, to corruption, waste, absenteeism, and poor quality of service. 1 Second, the increasing importance of private social-sector organizations such as nonpro…ts, NGOs, and social enterprises as well as hybrid organizational forms such as public-private partnerships, and contracting-out, make it too restrictive to equate the provision of public goods and services with provision through government agencies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Akerlof and Kranton (2005) give the example of rituals at West Point which are intended to socialize new recruits into being e¤ective military personnel. Training programs upon entering an organization which encourage people to see the bene…ts that the work of the organization does are commonplace and can be understood as a form of socialization into making employees internalize pro-social objectives.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Prosocial Motivation and Incentives

Besley

Ghatak

2018

Annu. Rev. Econ.

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This paper explores the role of incentives in providing goods and services that have signi…cant social returns not captured in private returns which tend to be in environments where outcomes and performances are not easy to measure, and pro-social motivation plays an important role. We discuss how the presence of pro-motivation among agents involved in the provision of these goods and services changes the design of incentives. The paper also emphasises how heterogeneous pro-social motivation puts a premium on selection of agents in this context. We also discuss alternative theories of pro-social motivation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Prosocial Motivation and Incentives

Besley

Ghatak

2018

Annu. Rev. Econ.

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“…In-group favouritism, or solidarity, is a well-documented aspect of human behaviour [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. People offer preferable treatment towards members of their own group and discriminate against those belonging to other groups [4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperation during cultural group formation promotes trust towards members of out-groups

Pan

Houser

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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People often cooperate with members of their own group, and discriminate against members of other groups. Previous research establishes that cultural groups can form endogenously, and that these groups demonstrate ingroup favouritism. Given the presence of cultural groups, the previous literature argues that cultural evolution selects for groups that exhibit parochial altruism. The source of initial variation in these traits, however, remains uninformed. We show here that a group's economic production environment may substantially influence parochial tendencies, with groups formed around more cooperative production (CP) displaying less parochialism than groups formed around more independent production (IP) processes. Participants randomized into CP and IP production tasks formed cultural groups, and subsequently played hidden-action trust games with in-group and outgroup trustees. We found CP to be associated with significantly greater sharing and exchanging behaviours than IP. In trust games, significant parochial altruism (in-group favouritism combined with out-group discrimination) was displayed by members of IP groups. By contrast, members of CP groups did not engage in either in-group favouritism or out-group discrimination. Further, we found the absence of out-group discrimination in CP to persist even following 'betrayal'. Finally, belief data suggest that members of CP are not more intrinsically generous than IP members, but rather more likely to believe that out-group trustees will positively reciprocate. Our results have important implications for anyone interested in building cooperative teams, and shed new light on connections between culture and cooperation.

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“…The possible answers were coded on a Likert scale that ranged from "complete agreement" (score 5) to "complete disagreement" (score 1). 11 Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that the experience of reduced career and training opportunities and workplace frictions (Blau andEhrenberg 1997, Fuchs Epstein et al 1999) may cause part-time workers to take a different stance on these issues when they explain to themselves why they have accepted such treatment (Akerlof and Kranton 2005).…”

Section: Table 2 About Herementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, in the field of personnel economics, identity manipulation offers firms new tools with which to impress company values on workers (Akerlof and Kranton 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identities, conflicting behavioural norms and the importance of job attributes

Russo

Hooft

2011

Journal of Economic Psychology

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S ABSTRACT Identities, Conflicting Behavioural Norms and the Importance of Job AttributesThe paper empirically expounds the richness of the identity approach to labor market behavior by allowing individuals to experience identity conflict. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between the importance individuals attach to labor-market activities -which is influenced by the identity to which they adhere -and their preferences for job attributes. The analysis shows that individuals who consider labor-market success as instrumental for achieving their life goals tend to attach importance to job characteristics such as pay level and career and training opportunities. Individuals for whom non-labor market activities are important and in conflict with labor market activities are found to attach importance to the possibility of working on a convenient time schedule. Moreover, consistently with the identity approach to labor-market behavior, men appear to resolve the conflict between career and non-work activities in favor of the former. Finally, unobserved factors that increase the desire to work part-time have a negative impact on the likelihood of attaching importance to training and career opportunities offered by the job.JEL Classification: J22, J24, Z13

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Identity and the Economics of Organizations

Cited by 1,281 publications

References 26 publications

Prosocial Motivation and Incentives

Prosocial Motivation and Incentives

Cooperation during cultural group formation promotes trust towards members of out-groups

Identities, conflicting behavioural norms and the importance of job attributes

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